Northwest Reverb - Reflections by James Bash and others about classical music in the Pacific Northwest and beyond

Monday, August 25, 2014

Oregon Symphony and other ensembles to give free performances at Waterfront Concert on Thursday

From the Oregon Symphony press release:

Oregon
Symphony Music Director Carlos Kalmar and President/CEO Scott Showalter
this week revealed details about the upcoming August 28 Waterfront
Concert
that highlight the event’s spectacular return. Those details paint a
vastly expanded Waterfront Concert that includes a new start time of
2:30 pm rather than the traditional 5:00 pm along with an entertainment
lineup that spotlights many of the City’s other
musical organizations.

“It’s going to be something
very special,” Kalmar said. “We have so many great musical groups
here in Portland, including some who are doing the important work of
training our next generation of musicians. It will be a pleasure to
share the stage with them for the Waterfront audience.”

Showalter
acknowledged the special partnership that the arts enjoy with the city
of Portland. “Mayor Charlie Hales and all of the City Commissioners have
our great thanks for funding the return of the Waterfront
Concert—one of the state’s largest community concerts. With these
resources, we were able to turn the 18th Waterfront Concert into a truly city-wide celebration with many other arts organizations.”

“Nancy and I are fans,” Mayor Hales said. “This is one of those great events that make Portland so cool.”

Special thanks also go to the Waterfront Concert’s other generous sponsors:
NW Natural, Boeing, KINK FM and KATU-TV.

The Oregon Symphony’s program includes an
Oregon Ballet Theatre performance of the Grand Pas De Deux from George Balanchine’s
The Nutcracker featuring principal dancers Haiyan Wu and Chauncey Parsons as well as a selection from Bizet’s
Carmen with baritone Alexander Elliott to highlight Portland Opera’s upcoming 50th anniversary season.

The festivities conclude with the traditional grand finale—Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture complete with military cannons from the Oregon Army National Guard 218th Field Artillery. Immediately following
the 1812 Overture the skies will light up with an elaborate fireworks display, a signal to everyone in Portland that the musical season has begun.

With an expected audience of around 15,000 in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, patrons who bring lawn chairs are asked to bring only chairs that
sit low to the ground in order to preserve sightlines for patrons behind them.

Complete
program details as well as information on all the participating
organizations will be available on the Symphony’s website:
www.OrSymphony.org/waterfront.